Aish breaks jaw, Rockliff ribs at Lions

Young gun James Aish has been added to Brisbane Lions’ horror injury list after it emerged he played the second half of their AFL loss to St Kilda with a broken jaw.

It will rival the bravery of Lions captain Tom Rockliff who broke three ribs in the opening 10 minutes of the 22-point Gabba defeat on Sunday, yet played on.

Both Rockliff and Aish are expected to be sidelined for a month.

Brisbane have a full blown injury crisis on their hands after players appeared to drop like flies in the clash with the Saints.

Before a ball was kicked, Darcy Gardiner (calf) withdrew while Jed Adcock (calf), Claye Beams (knee) and Ryan Harwood (concussion) all went down during the disappointing defeat.

Besides Rockliff, Adcock, Beams and Gardiner are expected to miss Sunday’s clash with Greater Western Sydney but Harwood may play.

It has been revealed Rockliff was nursing the same three ribs that were broken in round one against Collingwood after a collision in the first 10 minutes of the Gabba clash with the Saints.

“He put a brave face on. He’s a tough bugger,” Lions defender Marco Paparone said.

“I didn’t even know he did it and he played the whole game out.”

The Lions now have 10 of their best 22 sidelined.

“Hopefully it (fortune) does turn because we need all our key players back, and that will improve the team and get confidence within the team,” Paparone said.

“We’re very young still. We need to get our good players back to settle things down.”

Not that the Lions would use the string of injuries as an excuse, Paparone said.

“We just have to adjust each week,” he said.

“We all know the game plan and what we need to do in each position so we just need to go out there and play our roles.”

Stay up to date with the latest sports news
Follow our social accounts to get exclusive content and all the latest sporting news!